Indian TV Channel Protests Rape Documentary Ban

Efforts by the government to keep a documentary about the 2012 Delhi gang rape from being viewed in India have sparked vigorous debate across the country. In this file photo from December 2014, activists perform a street play to protest crime against women. The play was staged on the second anniversary of the brutal 2012 rape.

Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

An Indian TV channel showed the same image without sound for an hour during prime viewing time on Sunday evening. The reason: to protest a ban on a documentary about the fatal gang rape in Delhi in 2012.

Broadcaster NDTV, which holds the rights to “India’s Daughter,” fell silent from 9 p.m., the time at which it was scheduled to broadcast on March 8, International Women’s Day.

Instead, the station showed a black screen displaying the title of the documentary in red and white, and a flickering earthen lamp – a Hindu symbol for dispelling the darkness of ignorance as well as enlightenment and knowledge among other things.

“That should speak louder than words,” NDTV said in an emailed statement to The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Ms. Udwin in a phone interview Friday said she’d given NDTV distribution rights for India and charged them one rupee (two cents) to “validate the contract.”

The documentary will be shown on Monday in New York by a women’s rights advocacy group.

The U.S. screening of the film was organized by Vital Voices Global Partnership, a Washington-based advocacy group, and Plan International, a U.K.-based nonprofit that helps children in developing countries. It will be shown at City University of New York’s Baruch College, the group said in a press release.

He and three other men were sentenced to hang in 2013 after being found guilty of rape and murder along with other charges. The judge who presided over their trial said the actions had “shocked the collective conscience” of the country.

The four men have all appealed their convictions.

Prosecutors in the case said the attackers repeatedly inserted a metal rod into the victim, causing severe internal injuries. The young woman died 13 days later in a Singapore hospital where she was flown for treatment.

Another man, who was a minor at the time of the assault, after being found guilty was ordered to a reformatory for three years, the maximum punishment allowed under India’s youthful offender laws. A fifth defendant died awaiting trial. Police said he committed suicide, something his family disputes.